Sermon of 29 August 2010 Psalm 110 Acts 2.22-36 Jesus is on the Throne

Psalm 110 Acts 2.22-36

While I was in our church building on 'Cork Heritage Day'
one of the visitors we welcomed was enthusiastic about his visit
to the top of the 'Elysian'a new skyscraper in the city centre
from which you can see Cork from a new perspective.
You get a bigger picture.

Stafford Carson at the ‘Confident in Christ’ conference
spoke about the big picture of the global perspective.
He suggested we have a too limited view of what’s going on in the world;
our horizon stops at the end of our pew or our street.

Across these islands in Britain as well as Ireland church statistics are in decline
and it‘s easy to get depressed.
But the global perspective is different.
St Vincent de Paul wrote in 1640
a year which was violent and bad across Europe.
The great Catholic champion of the poor predicted that the church of the future
would be the church of Africa, of S. America of China and Japan.
With the exception of Japan that has turned out to be a true prophecy.
Across Africa, S America , China and much of Asia
Christianity has vital growth - new churches, many conversions
and much joyful endurance of persecution.

We should also be encouraged that this great growth of the church
undermines the allegation that missionaries were only tools of western colonialists.
In all these areas of growth colonialism is a fading memory
but the churches grow as authentic churches of their people not colonial hangovers -
Chinese or Brazilian or Korean or African churches …
These growing churches are led by people from those countries
and they are now sending missionaries westwards.

In 1910 a third of world’s population was Christian predominantly in America and Europe.
In 2010 of a vastly increased world population a third is still Christian
and the trends suggest this will still be the case in 2050.

So as we look outwards beyond our borders and small horizons
there is so much to encourage us and challenge us.
Christianity will be predominantly a Christianity of the poor
a different spiritual universe;
it flourishes among the poor and the persecuted;
It is declining among the rich and the secure.
We need humility therefore to find out how we witness and live as Christians.

Stafford Carson, who knows the USA well
cautioned us against looking across the Atlantic
and trying to copy successful churches there.
He also commented on the folly of trying to trim or change our message
to make it more palatable to the Western secular worldview.

While we take heart from what is going well in other places
the challenge is to understand what God is saying to us in Ireland.
The words of Peter in Jerusalem on the day the Holy Spirit fell
are a good place to start.

But before I take you briefly through what he says about Jesus,
lets think about what we might say
if someone asked us what is important about Jesus.
We might say that he was a man,
a good man who did a lot of wonderful things.
We might speak about his cruel death on the cross.
We should also mention his resurrection from the dead
to show that he is more than a man he is the Son of God.
What should we say next? What does the creed say?
‘On the third day he rose again from the dead …
he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty’
Do we often miss out on the ascension of Jesus?
His triumphant arrival into heaven? His coronation?

His sitting beside the Father in full authority?

The ascension of Jesus should not be left out.
Many of our spiritual struggles, our sense of defeat, inconsistency, apathy
arise because we have forgotten about the ascended crowned Jesus.

THE REALITY OF THE REIGN OF JESUS

This is where Peter takes the people in Acts 2.
He starts as we might with the man Jesus. (22)
He reminds them of how they put Jesus to death (23)
He then affirms the wonder of the resurrection (24)
and quotes Psalm 16 where King David declared (27)
you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
Peter then reminds them that (29)
‘David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day‘.
but David was speaking of the resurrection of the Messiah, the Christ
the coming anointed King
And Peter says that Jesus is this risen King (32)
‘ God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.’
But does Peter stop there?
Jesus is King not simply because he is raised from the dead
but because he is (33) ‘exalted to the right hand of God,
The great King David died and was buried.
He did not rise from the dead still less go up into heaven.
But David prophesied in Psalm 110
"`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
5 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."'

Psalm 110:1

Peter then declares to the people:
‘God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ’

CRUCIFIED BY PEOPLE, CROWNED BY God

Here is an important difference between King Jesus and any other ruler.
It’s hinted at in the life of Jesus in the gospels.
Have you ever noticed that puzzling thing
that again and again when Jesus did something wonderful

healing the sick, feeding thousands of people
he does not want any publicity,

he tells people to keep quiet about it?
Particularly after the feeding of the 5000

people come to make him king (John 6.15)
and Jesus goes off on his own.
He will not be made king.

The only crown he had from human beings was a crown of thorns.
The only cries about him as King were cries not of praise and celebration
but of mockery and derision.

Jesus chose the cross instead of a crown.
He took the road of suffering rather than political struggle.
He would let nothing distract him from being the perfect sacrifice for us.
His coronation in heaven had nothing of sinful human manipulation about it.
Jesus is King not because his followers then said he should be

or because we today say he is.

Jesus is King because God says he is.

We live in a part of the world where Christianity is now seen as bad news, not good:
out of date, irrelevant, discredited, oppressive, stupid …a minority interest,

a cultural curiosity out of which people think they have grown
(and some of you from other countries have found the contrast shocking
because in your home place Christianity is very good news)

But here’s the thing.
What people think about Jesus and Christianity does not change this reality.
Jesus is King because God says he is.
He is not subject to opinion polls and statistical surveys
and especially when the mocking or the indifference gets to us
we need to spend more time in the throne room of God
where Jesus sits at the right hand of God
and then go out to tell people that the King reigns and he is coming back.
We are not begging to make Jesus king as if it were in doubt
We are proclaiming the universal Lordship of Christ
We are calling people to come to terms with the good news
that he is the king of glory.

In Greek usage in New Testament times ‘evangelist’ could be used

to describe the king’s herald going before him to tell towns and villages
the good news that the king was coming.
Jesus himself used the word in that way in Mark 1.15
when he preaches the good news and says
“The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’
Our good news is now even better
in the light of the cross and the resurrection and the ascension.
The kingdom has come:
Jesus Christ has died for our sins

Jesus Christ is risen
Jesus Christ sits at God’s right hand.
He who suffered and was humiliated
now has his rightful place on the throne of God.

JESUS SITS AT God’s RIGHT HAND

Psalm 110 says
[1] The LORD says to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

When we think of a throne we think of a golden seat
with room enough for one king or queen at a time.
But thrones in those days were like sofas:

the king could invite someone as the highest honour
to sit with him in the seat of power.

And to sit there, not simply to rest but to reign.
There is the sense in his sitting down of a work completed:
His suffering is ended, his sacrifice completed
but we know there is much work on earth still to be done.
The end result is not at all in doubt -
the enemy is on the run
but there still remains a lot of mopping up to be done,

a lot of sorting out a lot of announcing of the kings’ reign.

So there is also the sense which we use when we say a law court is sitting
which is another way of saying that the judge is at work hearing cases, giving judgements.
So here the king sits on the throne in session (sitting) to attend to the affairs of the state.

Jesus is not on holiday or in retirement
He is on our case. He is interested in how we are doing.
He knows and shares our sorrows and joys.
And he is willing to hear our petitions and cries for help
when things get tough.

THE MYSTERY OF THE KINGDOM

The Bible is realistic.
This kingdom of God is not always clear in the here and now.
There is still sin, struggle, suffering, misunderstanding, disobedience.
That is why Psalm 110 says v 1
till I make your enemies your footstool.
Not all the enemies have yet submitted to Christ but one day they will.
And v 2 reassures us you will rule in the midst of your enemies.
That is a precise description of what is happening today.
Earthly rulers make borders and seek to exclude enemies

but here down on earth Christ’s kingdom is being established right among his enemies.
Messiah has entered the camp of his enemy
and he has a volunteer army, his people will offer themselves freely
and they will be as numerous as drops of dew at daybreak
3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle

THE METHODS OF THE KINGDOM

The war rages, we are behind enemy lines
but Jesus rules in the camp of his enemies
and it is only right to pray and expect
that at least some and we could say many of the enemies of Jesus will be destroyed
not by being crushed in a bloody battle
but by becoming the friends of Jesus, by being converted.

The big danger of using a military picture of war and fighting
is that we think of it in a fleshly and not a spiritual way.
We can so easily get proud and vindictive and vicious in this struggle.
But the kingdom of Christ is not of this world (John 18.36)
and the weapons we use are not of this world.
Stafford Carson quoted Tim Keller that
in Christ we have ‘the strongest possible resource for practising
sacrificial service, generosity and peace making’
At the very heart of our view of reality is a man who died for his enemies
praying for their forgiveness.
This means we must not act with violence and oppression towards our opponents.

Later on in Acts chapter seven we read of the dreadful death of Stephen
stoned for his faith in Jesus.
Do you remember what he prayed as he was dying:
‘"Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
A prayer for forgiveness.
We are then told that Saul of Tarsus was there consenting to his death,
holding the coats of his killers.
What happens just a chapter later?
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, the No. 1 persecutor of Christians.
The battle we fight is not a ‘jihad’ an unholy war
to cow people and coerce them to becoming Christians.
It is a battle fought with prayer, repentance, consecration to Christ
and with love and forgiveness for our opponents
with the desire that their eyes may be opened as our eyes had to be opened
to realise that Jesus Christ is Lord
and we all need to submit to him.

Lets be confident, therefore,
that there shall be significant conversions in our time.
We should pray and expect conversions among the Taliban.
Why not? It has happened to paramilitaries in this country.
We should pray for and expect conversions among leading atheists and critics of Christianity.
We should pray for and expect spiritual strongholds to fall.

Jesus crowned by his Father and seated on the heavenly throne
has not put his feet up and left us to a vain struggle down here.
He is vitally interested in what we are experiencing
and is with us in a holy fight.

Be King in our lives, Lord Jesus.
Help us to remember what it means that you sit at God’s right hand.
Let us not crown you in this church
but have another God and Lord outside.
Help us by the Spirit’s power
to live under your rule and reign consistently and continually

May your eyes see the king in his beauty
May you ever worship him seated on the throne
May his hope give you purpose in living;
may his joy be your strength;
may his purity keep you clean in thought and action;
may his peace transform all your relationships;
may his blessing make you truly thankful;
and may you ever live in his love.

Sermon of Sunday 22 August 2010 Great Peace and No Stumbling Psalm 119.161-176

Psalm 119.161-176

165 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

Think for a moment how you react when something goes wrong.

Do you panic and run around like Corporal Jones in ‘Dad’s Army;
shouting ‘Don’t panic’?
Do you look around for some else to blame? ‘It must be their fault’
Do you turn the blame in on yourself? ‘It’s always my fault.’
Do you blame God?
How do you handle pressure from others and criticism?
Is it likewise either accusing them or condemning yourself?

And then you realise that you are no longer walking with God
- you’ve fallen flat on your face, you’ve stumbled.

Isn’t v 165 such a positive and challenging call to keep walking
and not let ourselves trip up?

165 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

One of our missionaries in India found herself with an Indian pastor
acting as mediators between Hindus and Muslims
in violent conflict with each other.
It was not the easiest place to be but she recalled saying to her colleague:
‘you know we ought to feel afraid, but I don’t’
and he said the very same;
and then one of them said to the other:
‘This must be nothing other than the peace of God.’

They had great peace in their close relationship with him
and so they were kept from fear in a fearful situation
and kept from any kind of reaction that would have tripped them up.

At the Coleraine conference ‘Confident in Christ’
one of our missionaries in Malawi told the story of a dreadful road accident.
A family he knew were moving house.
They had piled all their furniture on a truck and the family sat on the very top.
As the truck climbed a hill it skidded off the road and down a bank
and one child was killed and the others in the family badly injured.
As he went to the hospital he wondered how he could comfort them
but the family comforted him.
The father said as African Christians often say:
‘God is good all the time, all the time God is good’
How can you say such a thing at such a time
unless you have that great peace which helps you not to stumble?

Is our peace great? Are we confident in Christ?
‘Here on Jesus Christ I will stand. He's the solid rock of my life.’
That’s easy to sing, but is it true for us?
Is it still true when things go wrong?

The secret of the great peace that keeps you from falling is
in the phrase ‘who love your law’.
65 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.
This phrase does not refer to people who love bible studies
and know a lot about the Bible and win Bible quizzes.
It refers to people who rejoice in the covenant agreement
they have with God
people who love the Bible in the Old and New Testaments or Covenants
because it shows us how our relationship with God is grounded
and how it is to be lived out.
The writer of Psalm 119 is so passionate about the Law
because it is the link for him between heaven and earth,
between a holy God and us sinful humans.
It is God’s declaration to his people, bad and disobedient as they are
that he still loves them and has delivered them from slavery
and wants them to express that liberation by living in new and better ways.

Of course the New Testament shows us that Christ is the fulfilment of the law
so we love God’s law, we love the whole Bible
because it shows who Jesus is and what he has done for us
The holy scriptures are able to make you wise to salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus
as Paul reminded Timothy (2 Timothy 3.15)
And as he went on to say (vv 16-17)
'All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.'

If you want to be grounded in the great peace of God
you need to be well acquainted with the words of God
so that you won’t get tossed around in the storm or wander lost in the dark.
As Selwyn Hughes put it
'Someone who tries to live without the guidance of the Bible
is like a captain of a ship brushing aside his charts
and saying he will be guided only by his intuition.
No one can remain spiritual who is not scriptural.’

Ajith Fernando directs ‘Youth for Christ’ in Sri Lanka.
He spoke at the ‘Confident in Christ’ conference
and was very open about his own weakness.
He tells his workers:
‘When things are going well, read your bible,
that when things go badly it may help you.’
And he told this story about how he had become discouraged
by the great difficulties they were facing:
war, persecution, poverty, internal divisions.
One day he heard his wife saying to the children
in the sort of loud voice wives use when they are talking to the children
but have a message for their husbands.
‘Father is in a bad mood, lets hope he goes and reads his bible.’
Ajith said to us:
‘When I go to the scriptures I enter another world
where there is stability and security and I am lifted up.’
How relevant to Christians anywhere when so much is unstable and insecure!

65 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

And indeed even when we do stumble
what else helps us get up than what God says?

Lets be clear as we close that this is God’s peace from God’s word.
Jesus promised his disciples at a time of great fear and uncertainty
that he would give them his peace, not the world’s peace.

We all love the world’s peace:
times when the sun shines and it’s calm and bright
and the phone doesn’t ring and your neighbour’s music isn’t too loud
and burglar alarms aren’t shrieking away.
But that's a temporary peace.
And sadly some people think they can get peace
from a bottle or a pill or a needle.
but that is an addictive peace that destroys.

The world’s peace evaporates at the first sign of trouble
The great peace of Jesus is there in the times of trouble.
As somebody put it (E Clowney)
‘Peace is not just quiet fellowship with the Lord in the upper room.
Jesus gave shalom to his disciples
as he sent them into a world of trouble and suffering
and as he went to the cross
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
(John 16.33)

So how do we react when we face trial and trouble?
Panic? Blame? Despair? Hurt?

I will not try to hide from you that I am not an expert in great peace.
Those who know me the best will know my weakness
that I too have bad moods when I need to go and read my Bible
and renew my relationship with the Lord.

My life, like all our lives, is a work in progress
and I thank God that things that used to annoy me a lot
don’t bother me so much now.

When I got into conflict with people especially over spiritual matters
it used to unsettle my peace.
If somebody said to me they didn’t believe in God at all
or mocked my beliefs as childish and out of date
I used to get defensive or depressed or even vindictive
trying to think of a smart reply to come out the winner in the argument
and have the last word.
A lot of that had to do with my desire to be right
and to be seen to be an effective, successful Christian.
I am still grieved by unbelief, it is sad when people mock Jesus.
I still struggle with criticism
how to accept it when it makes a fair point
and to leave it with Jesus when it is undeserved and unfair.
He took a lot of undeserved and unfair criticism.

But more and more I have come to see that my great peace
comes only from being accepted and forgiven and established by Jesus Christ
who died for me and is risen and exalted.
And I love the words of God in this book
because they make that clear
and reassure me when I get down
and challenge me when I get proud
and correct me when I want to go my own way.

Here on Jesus Christ I will stand.
He's the solid rock of my life.
It’s not the work of my hands
There's no other place I can hide
'til the storm that rages subsides.
My voice cries to God from the flood,
and I'm saved because of his blood.
He's the solid rock of my life.

Some verses from Psalm 112 (1,3-7)
make a good commentary on Psalm 119.

[1] Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands.
[3] Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
[4] Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
[5] Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
[6] Surely he will never be shaken;
a righteous man will be remembered forever.
[7] He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

Speak to us, Lord Jesus ‘with the voice that spans the years,
speaking life, stirring hope, bringing peace to us’
you have died to be our peace, you have risen,
one day we shall be with you for ever.
Until then help us to cope joyfully with trouble
in your joy and your peace.

Lord,
help us to understand and accept your providence
which causes it to rain alike
upon the just and the unjust
and scatters things of this life
as trifles of so little importance
that they mean neither love nor hatred.
Please fix our steps that we may not stagger
at the uneven motions of this world,
but steadily go on to our glorious home,
neither judging our journey
by the weather we meet with
nor turning out of the way
for anything that happens to us,
as true followers of Jesus Christ.
(adapted from George Hickes edn
of devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices by John Austin
in An Anthology of Prayers ed. AST Fisher)


'May you receive the peace that Christ gives you, not as the world gives
May your hearts not be troubled or afraid.'
May his presence within guard and keep you from sin
Go in peace, go in joy, go in love.

Sermon of 15 August 2010 Taking in God's Word Psalm 119.137-160

Psalm 119.137-160

“We took shifts copying for 20 days continuously,
two copying and two correcting.
By the last night, we finished and went to return the Bible.
Exhausted, we fell asleep on the way.
Morning came and we rushed to return it to the elderly woman,
constantly apologizing.
We started reading our hand-copied Bible immediately.
At the time we had 10 churches, and we used that Bible during meetings.
This copy was lent among the churches.
This Bible is very precious to us.
We hid it at a meeting place by digging a hole,
putting it in and covering it with a rock.
I used it for 10 years, until it was discovered and confiscated.’’
(Chinese Christian)

How much do we value our Bibles?

“Thousands of people have given their life for it.
Prophets were killed for it. Apostles were killed for it.
Martyrs throughout church history have been were killed for it.
Today people are killed for it. And we just put it on the shelf?“
So says Brother Andrew ‘God’s smuggler’
who has devoted his life to sharing God’s word in the Communist world
and recently in Islamic countries.

Maybe you have been thinking that Psalm 119 with its 176 verses
is really rather too long.
I have to confess that I faced a bit of a block looking at this week’s section.
What new thing could I say from it that we have not already heard about
the light for our path and the passion to tears and freedom and suffering?
So lets turn to Nehemiah 8.
and highlight some things about how Ezra and the people responded to God's word -
it is a sort of demonstration in practice of many things in Psalm 119
We are in Jerusalem in the 440s BC;
a group of exiles under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah
are trying to rebuild Jerusalem, the ruined walls and the ruined temple.
Chapter 8 of Nehemiah gives us the start of the spiritual rebuilding programme
as a disorganised group of people begin to find their re orientation,
their new direction by God‘s word.

In the seventh month after their return
all the people assembled in the square before the Water Gate.
They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses,
which the LORD had commanded for Israel.
So Ezra brought the Law before the assembly,
which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.
He read it aloud from daybreak till noon
And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

v 1 'all the people ... told Ezra ...to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses,
and all the people listened attentively.'
Ezra was not imposing God's word on the people, it was their desire to hear it
they knew they needed direction, they told him to bring out the Book of the Law.

v 2 tells us that it was a great cross section of all people
men and women and all who were able to understand.
meaning children of an age to take it in

v 3 challenges us on our hunger for God’s word.
Are we among those who say a service should never last more than an hour and preferably less?
'He read it aloud from daybreak till noon....
And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.'
We are talking of a gathering to hear God's word of 5 to 6 hours!

It would be interesting to do a survey some Sunday across Cork city
to measure the length of the sermon and the size of the congregation.
You may be surprised to hear that some of the best attended churches
have the longest sermons.
And if we could find out accurately the level of satisfaction
the sense of closeness to God, the feeling that it was time well spent
there could well be a link between the longer time taken with God’s word
and the depth of satisfaction.

V 4 shows us that Ezra was not on his own.
He was flanked by 13 other people who were presumably leaders in the community
giving the message that this wasn't Ezra out on his own
that the leadership of the community were with him shoulder to shoulder.
(When we have the Lord's Supper, something like this is seen as the elders sit with the minister.)

V 5 first simply describes how Ezra was visible to the whole crowd
but then it shows their response of awe and reverence.
As he opened the book, the people all stood up.
and then in v 6 they lift their hands in response to Ezra's praise
and then they prostrate themselves to the ground.

Just notice how demonstrative they were and how inexpressive we are!

vv 7-8 brings us an important principle that the Bible is not just to be read
but also explained
The Levites mentioned here may have been doing some translation
as the people may not have all understood the classical Hebrew
that Ezra was reading
but they may also have repeated and expanded what had been read
much as a preacher seeks to do today to make sure that everyone understands.

Like the Ethiopian in Acts 8 reading the prophet Isaiah.
Philip asks him: 'Do you understand what you are reading?'
and he replies: 'How can I, unless someone helps me.'
And Philip opens his mouth and tells him of Jesus.
People need the Bible explained; people need to be pointed to Jesus.

Their explanations must have been very clear and direct
because v 9 shows us the people weeping
as they listened to the words of the Law.
They realised just how far over the centuries they had strayed from the Law of God
They began to understand how the long years of exile
had been God's just judgement on his faithless people.
They realised that their lives were like a ship wrecked on a sandbank or a reef
because they had ignored the charts and the pilot's advice.
How foolish they had been, how disobedient and faithless
to a God who loved them and had saved them at the Exodus!
But here's a thing. Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites
do not indulge in finger wagging. They do not thunder on:
"Weep indeed you foolish sinful people,
you deserve everything that's coming to you'

No, they say Don't weep! Rejoice!
10 'Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks,
and send some to those who have nothing prepared.
This day is sacred to our Lord.
Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

The point here is the one in the old children's chorus:
'He did not come to judge the world, he did not come to blame
it was to seek the lost, it was to save he came.
And when we call him Saviour, and when we call him Saviour
we call him by his name.'

Jesus will judge the world one day, but the reason for his first coming
the reason the scriptures are given is to make us wise by faith to salvation.
This is God's guide to life saving.
Nehemiah and the other leaders knew this even instinctively.

So the people wiped their tears away and went to party,
'to celebrate with great joy' in no selfish way,
They shared food with those who had none, so that no one was left out - why?
'because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.'
Words of challenge, yes, but first of all words of grace.
Direction for their walk with God.

Let's finish then by thinking how we apply this in our time and place.


1 HOW HUNGRY ARE WE FOR GOD'S WORD?
I don't think we should beat ourselves over the head
to be exactly like the people in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago
but their zeal should challenge us.
Standing for 5-6 hours, listening carefully, there's hunger to hear God.
Or the Chinese believers who spent hours copying the Bible out
while we leave it on a shelf?

One of the things I look forward to this week at the conference at Coleraine,
is the diet of bible teaching which will be offered by four committed, careful bible teachers.
I need to hear sermons too as well as give them.
I was talking with one of the speakers years ago
about what it really means to be a Presbyterian
and he said simply: ‘if you take away the Bible from the Presbyterian church
we have nothing left worth holding on to.’

There is a sense too in which many of the churches in this part of Ireland
need more of the Bible.
Pray with me that in our 150th anniversary next year
we may highlight the Bible at the heart of what we do and are as a church.
Not that we will ignore Jesus, not for a moment but if we don’t know the Bible,
in the end we won’t know Jesus
we will end up with our own ideas about him
which may keep us happy,
but at best spiritually malnourished and at worst totally and fatally led astray.

Pray with me that our bible teaching series on the Ten Commandments
planned for a year from now will find acceptance in the wider community
NOT that we can feel good about running a successful event
but that people will see the vital relevance of the Bible for their lives.

2 HOW SHOULD WE SHOW REVERENCE
FOR GOD'S HOLY AND LIVING WORD
In some Presbyterian churches people stand up as the Bible is brought in.
In some other churches people stand while the Gospel passage is read.
In some churches the clergy hold the Bible up above their heads and even kiss it
In India I found it good to see the congregation standing with their bibles held high
and singing a short song before the bible reading.

As Ezra read, did you notice that the people kept standing for hours.
And we just sit?

I will defend our practice of not holding the Bible up on high and not kissing it.
I don't think we need to stand up when it is brought in or when it is read,
because there is a danger in any ritual
that people can do a symbolic act that seems to honour the Bible
and yet in their hearts they could be far from accepting its truth.

But I need personally and I sense many of us need to remember
that God's word is holy and living.
I remember in Gujarat that the Bishop’s wife noticed
I was putting my bible on the floor under my chair.
Like a good wife she got her husband to mention to me
that contact with the ground is seen as dirty and defiling
and he made the point gently and graciously.
You may say that’s only a cultural value
but since then I think a bit about where I place my Bible.
From one perspective it’s only a book
but it’s the book from which God speaks.

When we come to sit at the Lord's Table
I am sure we all sense that that is a holy and precious time
and in some way God comes near.
But every Sunday when the minister says 'Let us hear God's word'
that should be a holy and precious and awesome moment.
We are going to hear what God says.
Or in our mid week bible groups or in the holiday bible clubs
it may be a much more informal atmosphere
but the same truth applies, and we need to be much in prayer and expectancy:
God is going to speak and we should show reverence for his holy and living word.

3 DOES GOD'S WORD MAKE US WEEP FOR OUR SIN
AND REJOICE IN HIS GRACE
When we are hungry for and reverently approach his word
Nehemiah 8 then gives the basic response when God speaks:
sorrow for our sin, joy in his grace.

There is a time for weeping over our sin
mourning over our failures that is an authentic response to God's word.
I will even say that if we have never wept in our walk with God
and in our encounter with his word there is something wrong,
we need to seek to meet God in a deeper way.
I hope you were challenged last week by the tears of the psalmist
running down his cheeks because God’s law was not being obeyed.

But what the leaders are saying here is that God’s forgiving grace
has priority over our deepest sin.
The time for weeping over sin should not drive out the time for rejoicing
because God in his mercy has not rejected even his sinful people.
We are right to be concerned about the ways we fail God
but the principle of grace is that we can not hope to change our ways
unless we see the Bible as first of all not as a book of do’s an don’ts and musts and oughts
but as a book of grace
where God tells his people, that he loves them, that he has given his Son for them
that he will leave them nor forsake them.

That is not in any way to minimize the seriousness of our sin
but it rather to help us see that we can only deal with our sin
from a full understanding of God's generous undeserved love
which calls us to a life of joy
and in a life of joy to know the strength of God to change our lives.

And often it may happen that as we rejoice in God's grace
we will be brought to tears at the thought
of our thanklessness, and ungraciousness and unworthiness.

4 DOES OUR ENCOUNTER WITH GOD'S WORD
RESULT IN PRACTICAL CARING RESPONSE?
This last point is short enough, you may be glad to hear.
Short for me to say, but long enough for us all to carry through.
As the letter of James says, 'Be not hearers of the word only but also doers'
The people went out and celebrated as they had been told.
They shared with the poor so that they could celebrate too.
The next day they reinstituted the feast of Tabernacles
and celebrated the giving of the Law of God for a further week.
It was an indication of their new seriousness in following God's word.

What will you and I do?
Will we make time later today to reread Nehemiah 8, or have we too much on?
Can we find ways to share what we have with others?
Will we understand that while we are not required to stand and listen to bible teaching for 5 hours
there is none of us who could not hunger more for God's word
and honour it more as his living message
and seek the appropriate response
of gladness for his grace and sorrow for our sin.

God of the living word,
give us the faith to receive your message,
the wisdom to know what it means,
and the courage to put it into practice,
(A New Zealand prayer book)

O Lord, you have given us your word for a light to shine upon our path'
Inspire us to meditate upon that word, and to follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the 'light that shines more and more
until the perfect day.'
through Jesus Christ our Lord
(St. Jerome c. 347-420)

O Lord Jesus, let not your word become a judgement upon us,
lest we hear it and do not it,
or believe it and do not obey it.
Thomas a Kempis 1380-1471

Sermon of Sunday 8 August 2010 What makes you cry? Psalm 119.113-136

Psalm 119.113-136

136 'Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.'

What makes you cry?
Are there situations which just make you well up with tears?
There are moments when we are deeply moved and it is right that tears flow.
Not just times of bereavement or deep frustration
but other times when something deep is touched inside us.

On the two occasions I have been travelling home from India
I have sat in the airport at Ahmedabad with tears in my eyes.
The Christian friends I have made there are so dear to me.

Or there’s that scene in ‘The Railway Children’
where Bobbie stares through the steam on the station platform
as she begins to make out the figure of her father
who is coming home to his family after being unjustly imprisoned.
I always need a hanky near by for that scene.
Tears for a scene of reconciliation.

Or that time when Ireland so nearly beat Australia in the rugby world cup
and big Mick Doyle sat in the tv studio with a tear running down his cheek.
Tears out of frustration, of only …, so near and yet so far.

I hope no-one is thinking ‘Big boys don’t cry’.
hat’s one of those assumptions in our culture and upbringing
which we need to challenge
because the Bible is full of examples of big boys who do cry
and not just because someone close to them has died
or they are suffering dreadful oppression.

There is Jacob kissing his bride to be Rachel and weeping.
Genesis 29.11

Jacob and his brother Esau weeping as they are reconciled. Genesis 33.4

There is Joseph reconciled to his brothers
years after they had sold him as a slave
weeping on several occasions.
Genesis 42.23-25 43.30

Hannah, weeping in bitterness of soul over her childlessness. 1 Samuel 1.10

King David deposed and humiliated by his favourite son Absalom
walked away from Jerusalem, weeping. 2 Samuel 15.30

As the law is read to the people in the time of Nehemiah they wept
because they had not been keeping it Nehemiah 8.9

And they joined with Ezra the priest in weeping bitterly
in confession of their sin. Ezra 10.1

When Peter realised he had denied Jesus three times he wept bitterly.
Matthew 26.75

Tears can also be an expression of self pity
feeling sorry for yourself and your loss but not for your sin
So Esau wept when he lost his birthright and blessing to his brother Jacob Hebrews 12.17
The prophet Malachi rebuked people who flooded the LORD's altar with tears.

In the book of Revelation the kings and the merchants weep a lot for their loss.
Revelation 18.10-16

Contrast what John writes earlier how he wept and wept
because no-one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.
Revelation 5.4

Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah shared that passionate concern
for the for the spiritual hardness of the people, as did St Paul.
People dismiss him as a gloomy old man but consider how:
he served the Lord with great humility and with tears Acts 20.19;
he warned people night and day with tears Acts 20.31;
he wrote to the Corinthian Christians
'out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears,
not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.'
2 Corinthians 2.4;
he reminded the Christians at Philippi
even with tears, 'that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ'.
Philippians 3.18

Paul cared about people
and their need of the good news that Christ died for them
and how terrible it was when they rejected that.

Then there was the woman
so overcome with Jesus’ love for her and that she was forgiven
that she made a scene in the house of the respectable Pharisee
wetting Jesus’ feet with her tears Luke 7.36-50

Finally we come to the Lord Jesus himself.
He wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus John 11.35
and the letter to the Hebrews reminds us of his tears with his prayers.
Hebrews 5.7.
He wept over Jerusalem as he approached the city Luke 19.41.
The people did not know what made for peace,
they were not reconciled to God.

Big boys don’t cry?

Jesus himself said they cry in hell with weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8.11-13 and other places)
Those are tears of self pity and regret.
Wouldn’t it be better to weep now in repentance
and to weep with Jesus and with Paul and with the psalm writer
that so many just don’t seem to get it,
that they disobey God’s word and ignore the warnings?

This verse 136 in Psalm 119 poses the question to me.
why am I not so deeply moved as this man who weeps and weeps
because God’s law is not being obeyed.

I don’t think I am the only one to have a disconnect
between what I say I believe and how I respond.

Why are we not more excited, more moved by the things of God?
Are we delighted, do we rejoice when someone follows Christ
Are we distraught, upset when someone disobeys Christ?

How can we sing our hymns, read our bibles with all those wonderful truths
and still be so dull and unresponsive?

136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.

What can we do about this?
I don’t want to hand out onions: we could have tears all right but no real grief.
But I hope you share my concern
that the vast majority of us are not more tender hearted
and more expressive of what we feel.
And if we don’t have strong feelings about God and his holiness
and the horror of disobeying him
then please join me in praying that our hearts may be softened.

My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?
(Psalm 42.3)

Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
(Psalm 30.5)

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
(Psalm 126.5)

'God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' Revelation 7.17, 21.4

Lord teach us a good weeping that will bring healing to the soul:

tears of repentance not regret;

tears that express our passion for people and for you

Soften our hearts.

Sermon of Sunday 1 August 2010 The Right Information Psalm 119.89-112

Psalm 119.89-112

So what is the right time? How can you be sure of it?
What is the right anything? How can we know?
There is such a thing as ‘Cork time’
which operates about ten minutes after Irish Standard Time.
In our house there is Heather Faris time which sets the clocks
three to four minutes ahead of where they should be.
This is irritating, but at least it is not random,
you learn to make the calculation to get the real time.
It is not as if the time is made up according to some whim.
There is a standard to refer to and accuracy is essential.

The strange thing is, we all accept the need for accuracy
in technology and science
but some people think when it comes to religion and morality,
to what you believe about God and right and wrong
they can just make it up, their beliefs will be as good as anyone else’s.

But making it up is a lonely and dark place.
What if you have got it all wrong? What is the right time, the right reality?
This is where the Bible supplies us with reliable information.
It has what a translator called ‘the ring of truth’.
Maybe you are not sure that the Bible is true:
We cannot go into every detail of the Bible today
but let me offer you four statements from today’s reading of Psalm 119
which resound with this ‘ring of truth’.

1 God’s WORD SHOWS US THE PLAN OF CREATION

89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.
90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.
91 Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.

This universe did not happen by chance. It is not random.
There is an underlying plan and reason for everything.
It is the design of a good and loving God.
That is a truth backed up elsewhere in the Bible:
‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …
And God said, ‘let there be light’ and there was light’ …
God’s word is creative. When he speaks, it happens.
Psalm 33.6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth
1 Corinthians 8. 6 ‘there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things came and through whom we live.
John 1.2 through him (through the eternal Word) were made all things’
And in Hebrews 1. 2-3 we are told that God has spoken to us by his Son
whom he appointed heir of all things
and through whom he made the universe
and the Son sustains all things by his powerful word.

As it says in Stuart Townend’s hymn addressed to Jesus:
'You're the Word of God the Father from before the world began.
Every star and every planet has been fashioned by your hand.
All creation holds together by the power of your voice.
Let the skies declare your glory, let the land and seas rejoice!'

This is God’s answer to our wondering and our questioning about what is it all about.
There is a reason, a purpose a plan.
It is to worship God who in Christ has made everything and keeps everything going.

Some people say you cannot answer those questions.
That’s the post-modern position - there is no one big story,
there is no over-arching reason for everything.
Here we are and that’s it. Stuff happens.
But that’s a very dark or, at best, foggy outlook and it doesn’t satisfy.
Is it really by chance that we exist and there’s no reason for anything?

89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.
90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.
91 Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.

2 God’s WORD IS MORE THAN PERFECT
96 To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless.

This is a verse worth thinking through and meditating on.
How can there be a limit to perfection?
What the psalm writer is saying is that everything in this life, however perfect, is limited.
The beauty of a rose, ‘perfect’ but it fades.
The best meal you ever ate ‘perfect’ but you’ll be hungry soon.
The most beautiful piece of music you ever heard -
I think of the chorus of the Hebrew slaves in Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’
which we heard in the open air in the old theatre in Verona.
It was sung unaccompanied,
and I will never know how they held that last note so long and finished together.
Perfect and yet I can never recapture it completely.

To all perfection I see a limit, but …
your commands have no limit.
God’s ‘law’ again here is everything that he wants to say to his people.
Not just his directions how to live the right way
but the invitation to enter a relationship that gets better and better.
It’s well described in the old hymn
‘Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace’
'perfect, yet still flowing fuller every day;
perfect, yet still growing deeper all the way.'

3 God’s WORD PROVIDES WISDOM FOR THE HUMBLE

At first sight vv 98-100 seem more boastful than humble
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.

But the wisdom comes from God’s word
not from the person taking it in.
It seems that the people he compares himself with are not grounded in God’s word
not even the teachers and elders and certainly not his enemies.

There is a freshness of outlook
in those who go straight to scripture for their thinking.
In this anniversary year for John Calvin we should be thankful for what that reformer rediscovered
that we need to get back to the Bible’s teaching again and again.
There is no substitute for searching the scriptures for yourself
rather than relying on second hand beliefs.

And if you want God’s wisdom you may more likely find it in a creche than a college.
Heavenly wisdom begins as a gift to babies hidden from the worldly wise.
‘At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit,
said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,
and revealed them to little children.
Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. '
Luke 10.21

Down through the ages people have sincerely tried to think their way to God and to peace.
They have tried to understand so that they may believe.
But it’s the other way round.
True wisdom comes when we believe in order that we may understand.
I hope we all understand that we should not wait until we have attained some degree of goodness
before we trust in Christ in order to be fit for him.
We would be waiting for ever in that case.
It is the same with our approach to the truths of God.
If we are waiting to sort out very detail, we will tragically be waiting for ever.
But God gives his wisdom to those who simply say they don’t know everything
and look to him who teach them.
‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’

A humble open reverent attitude to God opens the door to wisdom.
As Paul wrote to Timothy the holy scriptures were given
to make us wise to salvation which is through faith in Christ Jesus.


A young American preacher took a walk in the woods one night.
He was struggling with the question, is the Bible really and completely true?
Finally he knelt down and prayed laying his bible on a tree stump in the moon light.
'Oh God, I cannot prove certain things.
I cannot answer the questions some people are raising,
but I accept this Book by faith as the Word of God.
I stayed by the stump praying wordlessly, my eyes moist...
I had a tremendous sense of God's presence.
I had a great peace that the decision I had made was right.'

Was he right? That man was the young Billy Graham
possibly the most well known Christian of the past century
whose unashamed clear preaching 'the Bible says'
has led possibly millions of people to living faith in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, one of Billy's close friends of that time
also a young evangelist, and Billy would claim more talented than himself
had a similar struggle about accepting the Bible
but came to a different conclusion
and ended up trusting his own reason
rather than the scripture as the final authority.
His power in preaching was lost and his faith flickered and disappeared.

I do not claim any more than Billy Graham would
that I can solve all of the Bible's problems
but I do say that there is nowhere else where you will get
reliable information about ultimate reality
nowhere else where you will hear the voice of God clearly and compellingly,
to make you wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Not in the chat shows, not in the newspaper editorials,
nor in music or drama or other great art
nor even in some deep spiritual experience.
But if you read this book openly and humbly
asking God to open your eyes to see wonderful things in his law
you will gain more insight than your teachers
more understanding than your elders.

4 God’s WORD GIVES LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.


In 1944 a German sailor’s body was washed up on the west coast of Ireland.
They found in a pocket a package carefully wrapped up containing a New Testament
and inside the cover was written
‘I read this once because of my sister.’
‘I read this twice because of danger.
I read this a third time because of the Saviour.

Before he had left port his mother had given him the New Testament
and his sister had made him promise to read it.
While they no doubt prayed for him he read it the first time
to respect the promise he had made
and he read it another time as he realised his danger
and before he died he was able to write
that he too had come to faith in Jesus as Saviour.

The holy scriptures are able to make you wise to salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus
a lamp for your feet, a light to the path ahead.